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Being a starving artist is a rite of passage in the music industry. Having to struggle for your music gives it a soul.

Nothing could be truer for starving artist April Walker.

Walker has lived in Sacramento for 11 months and is in her second semester at City College. She is a self-proclaimed free spirit and born-again hippie. Walker, known by her stage name Space Walker, is an up-and-coming, singer-songwriter who believes that an education from City College can help further her career in music.

Confidence in herself and her music has not come easy for Walker. Being labeled a misfit, she says, plagued most of her childhood while growing up in Fairfield.

“I thought growing up that my dreams of being a musician were impractical,” says Walker. “I thought if I couldn’t succeed at it then I shouldn’t even try.”

These deeply planted seeds of doubt became uprooted during a trip she took to Costa Rica.

“The scenery and nature there is so beautiful,” Walker says. “I had a lot of time to contemplate the issues in my life. I came back to Fairfield and I knew I was going to do whatever it took to accomplish my goals.”

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Students are always in a hurry to go somewhere, whether heading to class, enjoying a small break or heading home for the day. As students, we all rely on the campus accessibility to help us get where we need to go.

Accessibility means more than just fulfilling the physical need, such as adding a ramp at an entry point where stairs exists. It looks at how programs, services, classes and activities are delivered, and constructed as a whole. For students who are disabled, the City College campus can prove to be a real nightmare if a handicap door button should malfunction, or if an elevator is down for repairs, leaving them stranded, or not being able to make it to class.

For the fall semester there are 1,200 students on campus who have a disability and use the Disability Resource Center’s services, according to DSPS coordinator and counselor Dr. Gwyneth Tracy. Tracy states that even though City College is compliant with the Americans with Disability Act door regulations, the ADA does not address the reality of situations for some students who have no upper body strength, and therefore, are unable to get inside a building if it does not have…» Read More

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Strong colors like strong personalities can’t help but show themselves.

Strong people can’t help but be vibrant and brilliant when the storms of life seemingly attack life as usual.  Like the leaves in the photos, the beautiful cannot be hidden in the rain but sometimes are more colorful than first noticed.

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A shove to the ribs, a crushing boot on the feet and a swinging shopping bag to the head as you maneuver through the line of yelling people. You may have been shopping Nov. 23, the day after Thanksgiving, or you were training for the TV game show “Wipeout.” If you didn’t plan on aggressive wrestling; perhaps this type of shopping was not for you.

Black Friday could easily be tagged as the most dangerous shopping day of the year. On this day, sleep-deprived people are baited with historically low prices on a limited amount of much-wanted merchandise found in a building maxed to capacity with fellow shoppers. Forgive the inability to utter “thank you” for keeping a store open when holidays are traditionally meant for people to be off work. Target, Toys’R’Us, Banana Republic, and Raleys are just a few of the retailers who were doing business some part of Thanksgiving Day.

The nauseating news of Walmart employee Jdimytai Damour being trampled by shopping crowds after being caught in the store entranceway in 2008 is what it took to implement security and order. You’ve probably heard of more recent stories of injured shoppers, such as the fight in Roseville…» Read More

The City College Learning Resource Center staffs many professionals to help students seeking to strengthen their academic scores. However, the LRC also needs some help accommodating the wealth of students who occupy all three floors reading, writing, studying and using library resources for academic use.

Various students work in the City College LRC everyday and help their fellow classmates with library services, as well as help keep the place running.

Comprised of three floors, numerous computer stations, thousands of books and several employees, the LRC is a bevy of activity.

Sandra Warmington, the reference coordinator for the LRC, points to the high amount of library equipment, such as three extra copy machines on the second floor, as just one example for the necessity of extra help.

“The librarians are going to need help with those copy machines, otherwise we would just spend all our time with those copy machines, instead of helping students do research,” says Warmington.

The student employees in the LRC work in different sections doing myriad tasks. Johni Quinn-Berry, 59, is a business administration major and is employed as part of a work-study program offered to her through a financial aid grant.

“In addition to financial aid,…» Read More

The numbers were fresh in Robert Martinelli’s mind from recently briefing the City College budget committee. The vice president of Administration had been juggling seven-figure numbers from the California Legislative Analyst’s office, from the current shortfall of $1.9 billion to a surplus of $9 billion expected by the 2017-2018 fiscal year.

The change would happen slowly, but Californian voters had made the right decision for the state, and more specifically, for education, with the passage of Proposition 30.

“We made the move from here to here,” said Martinelli, turning the pages of the Los Rios 2012-2013 Adopted Budgetbook from the worst-case scenario budget page to the better-case budget.

The Los Rios district’s “XYZ” budget represented three scenarios: worst (X), if Proposition 30 failed and there was additional $264 million cuts from community colleges; better (Y), if Proposition 30 passed and the state would use the $210 million in additional fundings to buy down built-up deferrals; and best (Z), where the $210 million from Proposition 30’s passage could be used for growth in the community college system.

Martinelli explained that the district started the 2012-2013 fiscal year in July with the X budget, but Proposition 30’s passage allowed the Y budget…» Read More